This is the second journal text written by New York based About Art Guest Contributor Gracie Newman.
During a recent sojourn in London, I stopped by the British Museum to see Nordic Noir: Works on Paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson. The exhibition features prints by more than one-hundred Nordic artists, ranging from elegant woodcuts to political posters. Ultimately the show serves to expand and deepen conceptions of Scandinavian society, with four broad themes surfacing: the mythical (drawing on Norse myth legends, Viking ancestry), the political (notably engaging with U.S. foreign policy, feminism, and the rights of the Indigenous Sámi people), the environmental (considering climate change and the splendor of the natural landscape), and the internal (exploring mental illness, existential angst, and geopolitical anxiety).
In every exhibition, there are a few works that call to me with a siren song; particular blends of color, shape, and thought that lure me across the room and into their depths. At Nordic Noir, one such painting was Don’t look to the horizon (2024) by Olafur Eliasson. A large watercolor created with melted glacial ice, the circular forms suggest a sort of cosmic cyclicality that is marred with drips and stains. A powerful commentary on climate change, Eliasson’s work characteristically emphasizes the urgency of environmental issues while evoking the cool magnificence of his native fjords, mountains, skies, and forests. In this piece is a powerful reminder: beauty can be a call to action.
